Copyright © 2002 Pabs et al., All Rights Reserved.
This is documentation on MS' current generation of help systems (HTML Help). HTML Help is a documentation system from MS that relies on HTML, XML and a filesystem that is used in storing multiple HTML & other files in a single file and involves LZX compression.
This is the initial release of this unofficial specification document. It is being released to gather feedback and further information on the current knowledge base relating to MS' help formats and systems.
This is an unofficial document produced by people not employed by MS without the permission or knowledge of MS. We hope that MS can see the value in this exercise and restrain their lawyers.
Every effort has been made to document each bit of the relevant formats and ensure that the documentation is accurate. However this effort is not yet complete and help is still needed to find meaning amongst the bits.
It is our hope that, in time, the documentation will be complete and, with luck, work may begin on the documentation of MS' other help systems.
This specification is dedicated to the humble NDA, which poked RMS enough to start GNU and trigger a whole new generation of innovation.
It is also dedicated to paranoid proprietary software authors for indirectly training reverse engineers worldwide.
Chapters
Appendices